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According to President Barack Obama, he and the pardoned turkeys have something in common: All of them got a second chance this November.

“You know, they say that life is all about second chances. And this November, I could not agree more. So in the spirit of the season, I have one more gift to give. And it goes to a pair of turkeys named Cobbler and Gobbler. The American people have spoken, and these birds are moving forward.”

Obama pardons a turkey

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Obama is not the first president to mark Thanksgiving with a presidential pardon for a pair of turkey and likely won’t be the last.

“It is often stated that President Lincoln’s clemency to a turkey recorded in an 1865 dispatch by White House reporter Noah Brooks was the origin for the pardoning ceremony,” states the White House website.

Sasha and Malia Obama joined their father as he pardoned Cobbler and Gobbler on Wednesday.

The president was in a good mood and even cracked a joke on Nate Silver’s account, saying, “Now, I joke, but — but for the first time in our history, the winners of the White House turkey pardon were chosen through a highly competitive online vote. And once again, Nate Silver completely nailed it. The guy’s amazing. He predicted these guys would win.”

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Capitol Confidential gathers the best coverage of New York politics and puts it all together. Each section - Capitol, The State Worker, New York on the Potomac, and Voices - represents a unique facet of the political scene. The Capitol section features coverage from the Times Union Capitol bureau. The State Worker is dedicated to state worker issues. New York on the Potomac offers news of interest to New Yorkers from Washington. And Voices features the best of everything else, pointing you to columnists and bloggers from across the Web.